Opinion polls exude an aura of scientific truth. Those numbers and percentages are so reassuringly solid, especially when generated by one of the well-known names of the polling world, that for many people they represent hard evidence of the state of British public opinion.
So when The Daily Telegraph announces in a stark front page headline that “Public backs Johnson to shut down Parliament for Brexit”, majority public support for such a huge constitutional risk seems assured. And when this headline is reiterated by Newsnight’s Emma Barnett – who rarely lets anything remotely contentious slip by – without so much as a raised eyebrow, it receives an implicit nod of authority from the nation’s impartial public broadcaster.
In fact, it is complete nonsense: at best, a misleading interpretation of a simplistic poll attempting to tap public feelings on a complex and controversial issue; at worst, a deliberate and malign distortion of a poorly designed poll, with a headline calculated to set the news agenda and serve the interests of Johnson and his strategy sidekick Dominic Cummings.
